Behind the Scenes with Pattern Designs

NOTE: As I transition my art efforts to this TMPixArt blog from my personal blog at TracyRuckman.com, I will be sharing art posts that were originally published on that site earlier this year. While the posts may be duplicates, my body of art, and the body of art created by my guests has grown and expanded. Because of this, I invite you to visit their websites and explore their art even if you read the blog post previously - you might be surprised to find a new favorite somewhere along the way!

My schedule has been wonky the past few months, so I've had almost zero photo or design time. This weekend, we took a day trip and explored a beautiful area that I'll be sharing about in the coming weeks, but today, I want to share behind the scenes of some patterns I created using what I call the discard photos - photos that aren't share worthy on their own, but sure make for some interesting patterns when I tinker with them.

This first photo was taken in Marshall Forest, the only forest in the US located within a city limit. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that one of the walking trails in the park is a "Braille trail" for the visually impaired.

This is the resulting pattern:

I liked the masculine feel of this pattern, so I used it for wrapping paper.

I had an idea for a project, so I was messing with these chains on some marble steps, trying to find a pattern or design that looked like the chains had been "broken" (under Tim's orders not to break his chains. Ha!)

We were driving down a road Sunday afternoon, rounded a corner, and the sunlight focused on these pink flowers in such a way that they glowed. Because I was driving, I just went past it but the image was burned in my brain. We turned around and went back to take a photo, but by then the sun was no longer on the flowers so the photos are quite disappointing.

But I got these magical snowflakes as a pattern, so all is not lost!

The pattern was too fine for wrapping paper, but it made a beautiful ribbon: